I opened the pew Bible in church yesterday so that I could follow along as the pastor read the morning's text. I was still hearing the choir's special in my mind and fondly remembering singing it during college when I suddenly found myself moved to tears by the words of scripture.
I read and heard:
Ezekiel 37
The Valley of Dry Bones
1 The hand of the LORD was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said, “Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.
11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’”
I must admit that I felt foolish sitting there with tears literally dripping into my lap before the sermon even began. But I couldn't help it. The Holy Spirit--the Breath of Life--the very breath that breathed life into those dry bones to which Ezekial spoke--was blowing through me.
You see, my life felt dried up and dead four years ago at this time. I had reached a very dark, low place where I felt as if I was only a broken skeleton of who I used to be. I had little desire to continue going through the motions that I called life, yet God breathed new life into me through the gentle winds of time and now I stand fully alive and ready to face this world.
I find myself having trouble expressing the depth of what I feel today--the profundity of worship yesterday. And so I will end this simple note with the words of yesterday's pastor that, again, moved me to tears. And let me just say...yesterday's pastor was my dear friend Mandy and I cannot be anymore grateful to have her in my life than I am today:
But, for many of us in this place we have experienced a similar exile. It comes when we realize that the faith of our fathers, the faith that we were raised with and taught, no longer fits. When we can’t make sense any longer of black and white theology and instead find ourselves in the foreign land of gray. It is when we question what we’ve been taught, we reject it, and we’re left lying in the valley without firm ground beneath us. And yet, the spirit breathed into us a new spirit. For God is the champion of the broken, the despairing, and the exiled. With God, brokenness is never the end of the story. Despair is never the end of the story. Death is never the end of the story.
The spirit blows where it will, choosing even to brood upon the face of the deep chaos of who we are and the relationships that fill our lives. And perhaps if we stick around in spite of defeat and despair – perhaps even if we feel despair deep in our dead and dry bones – the spirit just might knit us back together, breath new winds into our tired selves, and stand us on our feet restored and renewed. For the spirit of God raises dead hopes. The spirit of God is the source of life…even in the valley of death. The spirit of God can breathe into you, and me, and all who experience exile.
“Can these bones live?”
“O Lord God, you know.”
Amen.
(http://www.sardisbaptistcharlotte.org/userfiles/sermons/file_OG9Juqoe_EzekielandtheDryBones.pdf)
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